Polls indicate that former Rep. Rob Simmons didn’t make a very strong impression on voters heading into Tuesday's primary, but he did manage to win over an elite voting bloc in the Connecticut Senate race: The state’s editorial boards.

Since he got back into the race in late July, five of the six major newspapers in Connecticut have endorsed his candidacy, which, according to the most recent polls, is a long-shot to defeat former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon.

It’s doubtful that a series of newspaper endorsements could boost Simmons — or any other statewide candidate in the modern political age — to victory, but their backing also spells out McMahon’s vulnerabilities as a general election candidate. As the deep-pocketed front-runner for today’s election, some Connecticut voters — albeit an elite group — don’t buy that her particular business experience is a qualification to hold an office.

“My gut feeling is that they just have issues with her and the business that she runs, so they’ve endorsed him,” said Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia, a McMahon supporter. “In Linda’s case, I think it just boils down to they didn’t like the business that she was in.”

The Hartford Courant’s endorsement lauded Simmons’s “impressive résumé,” but blasted McMahon for WWE’s “schlocky, off-color content.” The Day newspaper wrote that McMahon “made her riches through an exploitative and often degrading form of entertainment.”

Other newspaper endorsements from the Stamford Advocate, Norwich Bulletin and Greenwich Time echoed similar concerns about McMahon’s business.

Meanwhile, The Register Citizen, based in Torrington endorsed McMahon’s bid for the Senate. McMahon spokesman Ed Patru dismissed the editorials, saying, “What voters think about her is much more important than what pundits or editorial boards think of her.”

However, another McMahon backer speculated that Simmons’s semi-quixotic campaign was intended to generate buzz, given that the former congressman will likely not win the nomination on Tuesday. McMahon leads Simmons in the most recent Quinnipiac poll, 50 percent to 28 percent — a 5-percentage-point increase from a poll taken just a few days earlier.

“Newspapers are in business to sell newspapers and some people might be inclined to kind of create a story that isn’t necessarily there by endorsing a candidate that doesn’t really have a chance,” said David McCarthy, a delegate for McMahon at the convention. “Linda is going to win. … It’s just a question of how dramatic that win is.”

Simmons backers said the sweep of newspaper endorsements is indicative of Simmons's significant experience. Simmons said in an interview that he believes he got the newspapers’ backing because he has “their respect.” His supporters, however, were less diplomatic.

One Simmons backer suggested the support of the Hartford Courant set the slate of endorsements in motion because it is the largest newspaper in the state and it came first on July 29, about one week after Simmons announced he would air television advertisements reminding voters he was still on the GOP primary ballot — and marking his official re-entry into the race.

“Would everybody else have endorsed if there wasn’t a Courant endorsement? I don’t know,” speculated the Simmons backer.

Former Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), who served in Congress with Simmons and supports his candidacy, said it was the loss of another endorsement that was “stunning”: The state convention delegates chose to endorse McMahon in late May, prompting Simmons to suspend his campaign until he rejoined the race in late July.

“It does not speak well to our party apparatus,” Shays said in an interview. “Newspapers don’t pick who will win, they pick who should win.”